Trustees of the International Accounting Standards Board should be stripped of the power to appoint their own successors, regulators have said.

European accounting regulators are calling for steps to improve the governance of the standards board, as well as its responsiveness to constituents.

The call for changes to the International Accounting Standards Committee Foundation, which oversees the work of the IASB, followed a meeting with the regulators and IASCF chairman Gerrit Zalm.

The regulatory groups include the European Federation of Accountants, the European Financial Reporting Advisory Group and the European Banking Federation.

In a letter highlighting concerns raised with Zalm, the group said that the appointment of the trustees was of concern: ‘The current system of self-appointment is no longer sustainable and needs to be replaced by appointment by an independent body which could be a monitoring group… the perception created by the fact that trustees are responsible for appointing their own successors does not fit with views in Europe on appropriate accountability.’

The group also hit out at the IASB’s intentions regarding fair value, which they say should not be the only starting point of measurement of values.

‘However it emerges from IASB working papers that full fair value is on the IASB’s agenda,’ the group said.

The IASB confirmed the meeting with the group had taken place to discuss European views on the standard setter.